February 17, 2007
The hoax is that Richard von Sternberg is an innocent who is unfairly maligned, to the point he fears for his job as Jack Cashill writes at right-wing fluff WorldNet Daily. Ed Brayton is at his best (“WorldNut Daily Flogs Dead Sternberg Horse), and there’s very little I could add — but it’s a good read, and important to know in the world of hoax-busting and pseudo-science bashing.
Read the full Brayton piece at Dispatches from the Culture Wars.
Sidenote 1: Sternberg as Galileo? Dembski as Newton? IDists are nothing if not full of themselves, and hubris.
Sidenote 2: A very funny novel by Robert Klane carries the title, The Horse is Dead. For some unfathomable reason, it is out of print. I have not found a copy in the past year for less than $150 (which suggests the TrashFiction site’s opinion of the book may be incorrect). Couldn’t some enterprising publisher bring it back, to more fully, and fictionally, fill in the details for what “beating a dead horse” means?
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Posted by Ed Darrell
February 16, 2007
Fixed Earth? I didn’t know it was broken.
Steve Schafersman, the dogged scientist at the root of Texas Citizens for Science (TCS), snagged a copy of the “evolution is religion” memorandum from Texas Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, and posted it to the TCS website. Also available from the Houston Chronicle’s SciGuy blog (transmission memorandum, the offending memorandum).
Holy mother of pearl! Voodoo science — you couldn’t make this stuff up.
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4 Comments | Charles Darwin, Creationism, Darwin, Education, Ethics, Evolution, Politics, Religious Freedom, Science, Science and faith, Texas Freedom Network, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 16, 2007
In our Valentine’s Day frenzy, we forgot to mention the 106th Carnival of Education, hosted by Eduwonks. But now the sugar rush is sorta gone, we remembered! Go, learn.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
February 15, 2007
First they deny science, then all of reality, then they deny that they denied. Or something like that.
Georgia State Rep. Ben Bridges denies having written or sent the memorandum that was circulated in his name to Texas state legislators earlier this week. The Atlanta Constitution provides the incredible details in this morning’s edition:
“I did not put it out nor did I know it was going out,” Bridges said. “I’m not defending it or taking up for it.”
The memo directs supporters to call Marshall Hall, president of the Fair Education Foundation Inc., a Cornelia, Ga.-based organization that seeks to show evolution is a myth. Hall said he showed Bridges the text of the memo and got his permission to distribute it.
“I gave him a copy of it months ago,” said Hall, a retired high school teacher. “I had already written this up as an idea to present to him so he could see what it was and what we were thinking.”
Hall said his wife Bonnie has served as Bridges’ campaign manager since 1996.
Bridges acknowledged that he talked to Hall about filing legislation this year that would end the teaching of evolution in Georgia’s public schools. Bridges said the views in the memo belong to Hall, though Bridges said he doesn’t necessarily disagree with them.
It’s getting so creationists no only can’t do science straight, can’t do religion straight — they can’t even tell whoppers straight. Read the rest of this entry »
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1 Comment | Accuracy, Charles Darwin, Creationism, Darwin, Education, Evolution, Freedom - Political, Hoaxes, Public education, Religious Freedom, Science, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 15, 2007
Texas State Rep. Warren Chisum said he’s sorry if anyone took offense over his circulating a letter from a Georgia legislator, Ben Bridges, railing at science, and promoting creationism. He’s right to apologize, but the apology stops short of where it needs to go.
This morning’s Dallas Morning News followed up on yesterday’s report of the letter (see preceding post). The letter referred to a bizarre website that argues that the Earth is fixed in space, and other crazy things, including offensive material about Jewish kabals. The Anti-Defamation League complained.
The stuff that causes conflicts between religious beliefs, you know, I’d never be a party to that,” Mr. Chisum said. “I’m willing to apologize if I’ve offended anyone.”
Mr. Chisum’s comments came after he learned that the Anti-Defamation League, which works against anti-Semitism and other forms of hate, was demanding “a repudiation and apology” in a letter to his office. He said he hadn’t seen the letter late Wednesday.
The wild rants against science, knowledge, civilization and bizarre twisting of Christianity? He doesn’t apologize for that stuff.
One might think that Chisum believes stupid and mean is fine, so long as a powerful lobby group does not complain.
The greater danger in the letter is the appeal to ignorance and crank science. Chisum needs to do a lot more apologizing, starting with several million Texas students, and tens of thousands of science teachers.
As if to answer some of Chisum’s religious questions, there is no comment from Molly Ivins. Whoever names the successor to Molly needs to do it fast. The Texas Lege is running wild.
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2 Comments | Accuracy, Charles Darwin, Creationism, Darwin, Education, Ethics, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Public education, Texas Lege, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 14, 2007
Be sure to see update here, next post. Worse, even more, here.
Don’t you just love the Texas lege?
And could you make this stuff up if you were writing a novel? Nobody would believe it.
Warren Chisum is a good ol’ boy from Pampa, Texas, and the second most powerful man in the Texas House of Representatives. So when his friend, Georgia State Rep. Ben Bridges, asked him to — well, what was it he asked? — Chisum agreed to circulate a petition that calls evolution a plot of the Pharisees, Albert Einstein and Carl Sagan members of a Kabbalistic plot, and Big Bang ancient religion.
The Associated Press report in this morning’s Dallas Morning News (free subscription required eventually):
The memo assails what it calls “the evolution monopoly in the schools.”
Mr. Bridges’ memo claims that teaching evolution amounts to indoctrinating students in an ancient Jewish sect’s beliefs.
“Indisputable evidence – long hidden but now available to everyone – demonstrates conclusively that so-called ‘secular evolution science’ is the Big Bang, 15-billion-year, alternate ‘creation scenario’ of the Pharisee Religion,” writes Mr. Bridges, a Republican from Cleveland, Ga. He has argued against teaching of evolution in Georgia schools for several years. Read the rest of this entry »
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5 Comments | Accuracy, Charles Darwin, Creationism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science, Science and faith, State school boards, TEKS, Texas Lege, Textbook Selection, Voodoo science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 14, 2007
I’ve never seen a pro-breast cancer post before. That post is easily as crazy as the kid I had in class who said he’d never let his “baby mama” breast feed his son, because he didn’t want his son to be “homo.” That was from a kid steaming to be a high school dropout.
Nuts. Why don’t people just stick to the facts?
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1 Comment | Accuracy, Freedom - Political, Hoaxes, Politics, Public health, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 13, 2007
Celebration was understated here for the dual birthday of Lincoln and Darwin. While I support greater festivities, other activities filled the calendar here in the Bathtub.*
But I do have a question: Do we know at approximately what time Lincoln, or Darwin, was born? I’ve been fascinated for years with the fact that Lincoln and Darwin were born on the exact same day, February 12, 1809; obviously, Darwin was born in England, and Lincoln in the U.S. But I wonder, how far apart in time were the births? How great a coincidence is this great coincidence?
My search for birth times hasn’t been exhaustive, but I’m coming up dry on both of them. Can anyone lend a hand with references or the actual times?
* Good heavens! I wanted to link to the little poem, “Ode to the Thing that Keeps the Wolf from the Door” here — I cannot find it on the web! Odd what the virtual world finds worthy in literature.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
February 11, 2007
Divest yourself of that tired and false notion that you’re bad at math. That’s hooey, though it probably sets your self-expectations low enough that it damages your math performance. Don’t make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
New Carnival on the block: Carnival of Mathematics at Alon Levy’s Abstract Nonsense. It’s got some good stuff there for math teachers, and I suspect people with other interests will find something of interest, too. For me, for example, there is the link to the post that Fisks arguments of some of the more unsuspecting intelligent design fogmeisters. More pure historians may like the history of algebra post. There’s a lot more history and controversy in a post about why students should study math at all:
Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals—the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all.
—Martin Gardner
quoted by G. Simmons, Calculus Gems
(Take THAT you creators of state history standards!)
Hmmm. I’m teaching algebra and geometry this week (“go figure!”). I may use some of that stuff.
Tip of the old scrub brush to JD2718.
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2 Comments | Accuracy, Brain learning, Creationism, Creativity, Education, Education blogs, History, Intelligent Design, Lesson plans, Public education, Science, TEKS, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 11, 2007
Today is Evolution Sunday. It’s a day when thinking Christians make a modest stand for reason, it’s a day when caring Christians make a stand for facts and truth, versus calumny and voodoo science and voodoo history.
Debunking hoaxes — finding the truth about who put the first plumbed bathtub in the White House, repeating the debunking of the “Lady Hope hoax” that claimed Darwin recanted his life’s work on his deathbed, holding a spotlight on the facts of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the events in the Gulf of Tonkin, highlighting the bravery of Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher and the crew of the Pueblo, noting that there never was a family of chainsaw murderers in Travis County, Texas — is difficult work. One wag I used to see posting on an internet bulletin board had a tagline, “Fighting ignorance since 1974 1973– it’s taking longer than I thought.”*
So, if you’re in church today, light a candle against the darkness, as Carl Sagan would say. Candles show us where demons are not, and where it is safe for humans to go. The more candles against ignorance, the greater the realm for human reason.
As Einstein almost certainly did not say, the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. And as Frank Zappa probably did say, hydrogen is not the most abundant thing in the universe — ignorance is. Light some candles against ignorance today, in church or out of it. Reason gives us hope, and there is precious little of both today.
Be grateful for those things that keep us free, for those things that keep us seeking and acquiring knowledge, and for those people (like P. Z. Myers) who prod us — righteously — to stand up for the truth.
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1 Comment | Accuracy, Charles Darwin, Education, Evolution, First Amendment, Free speech, Freedom - Political, Public libraries, Science, Science and faith | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 8, 2007
Amazing.
Via Education and Technology, I hear of a study that says teachers may not be undercompensated, with a supporting opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, “$34.06 an hour: That’s how much the average public school teacher makes. Is that ‘underpaid?'”. The study comes from the Manhattan Institute, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) figures, by Jay P. Green and Marcus A. Winters.
My escaped-sewage detector started clanging. Check out the lengthy explanation of methodology in the actual report. Such apologies up front should be a warning.
Of course, this raises issues about all the methodologies of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Read the rest of this entry »
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6 Comments | Economics, Education, Education reform, Education spending, Public education, Teacher Pay, Teaching | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 7, 2007
Wolf reintroduction to several places in the United States has been such a success that the federal government is planning to remove the wolf from the endangered species list. (Ralph Maughn’s Wildlife News blog covers this issue in detail.)
As if in a bad melodrama, some states are rubbing their hands in glee, planning hunts to more than decimate the wild populations, once the delisting is complete. In its excellent science section yesterday, the New York Times explained the issue, and featured wonderful photos of wolves.
For anyone interested, the issues with elk are also covered at Maughn’s blog, with an photo showing some of the serious mismanagement of elk that may be alleviated with introduction of wild wolves as predators.
In my several trips through Yellowstone National Park dating back to the 1950s, I had never seen a wolf until our last foray in 2003. At the same time, there are significant changes in the Park’s natural environment plainly visible. To my delight some prime moose habitat has returned in recent years. Grassy areas in some stream and river bottoms are turning back into more mixed plants, with willows and bushes intruding. This makes it more difficult to see wildlife, sometimes.
But it’s a good effect, and it’s a result of the introduction of the wolves. Elk graze in those areas, and they eat the willows and other bushes, keeping the river bottoms more like prairies than forest. Wolves love to hunt elk in those places, however, and the presence of wolves has put the elk on alert. Elk spend less time grazing the brush back, and the brush grows, providing habitat for a number of other animals, habitat that had been in serious decline.
One might wonder if some people are serious about these issues at all.
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Leave a Comment » | Cost of Green, Environmental protection, Green Politics, Natural history, Science | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
February 6, 2007
As the title notes, without comment:
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 